My dear Rowland Croucher.
Why must the Christians go to Church? Jesus does not encourage his
followers to go to Church and he does not built any Church either
during his lifetime.
Mark 7:6-13 (New International Version)
6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you
hypocrites; as it is written:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7They wor****p me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'[a] 8You have let
go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of
men."
9And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the
commands of God in order to observe[b] your own traditions! 10For
Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,'[c] and, 'Anyone who
curses his father or mother must be put to death.'[d] 11But you say
that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might
otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to
God), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or
mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you
have handed down. And you do many things like that."
In the Name of Allah Most Merciful and Most Beneficient
"Alif. Lam. Mim.
Allah! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. He hath
revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture with truth, confirming
that which was (revealed) before it, even as He revealed the Torah and
the Gospel. Aforetime, for a guidance to mankind; and hath revealed
the Criterion of right and wrong. Lo! those who disbelieve the
revelations of Allah, theirs will be a heavy doom. Allah is Mighty,
Able to Requite (the wrong). Lo! nothing in the earth or in the
heavens is hidden from Allah. He it is Who fa****oneth you in the
wombs as pleaseth Him. There is no God save Him, the Almighty, the
Wise. He it is Who hath revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture
wherein are clear revelations - they are the substance of the Book -
and others (which are) allegorical. But those in whose hearts is doubt
pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking (to cause)
dissension by seeking to explain it. None knoweth its explanation save
Allah. And those who are of sound instruction say: We believe therein;
the whole is from our Lord; but only men of understanding really
heed. Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided
us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou,
art the Bestower. Our Lord! Lo! it is Thou Who gatherest mankind
together to a Day of which there is no doubt. Lo! Allah faileth not to
keep the tryst. (On that Day) neither the riches nor the progeny of
those who disbelieve will aught avail them with Allah"
Holy
Quran Al- Emran 1-9
Simple interpretation:
"Allah there is no God but Him the Eternal the Living. He has
revealed to you this Book with the truth confirming the Scripture as
He revealed the Torah and the Injeel (Gospel) before this as a
Guidance for Mankind. And He revealed the Al-Furqan (Quran) as a
Criterion judgement between Right and Wrong.
Those who reject God's revelation will certainly be punished. God is
mighty and capable of retribution. Nothing is hidden from Him in the
Earth as in the Heaven. It is He who shapes your bodies from the womb
of your mother as He pleased. None has the right to be wor****pped but
Him. The Mighty the Wise. He is the One who revealed to you this
Book. Some of its verses are directive (Mukhamat). They are the
foundation of the Book. While others are allegorical (Mutashabihat).
Those whose hearts are infected with disbelieve follow the allegorical
part to misled others and to give it their own interpretation.
Those who are grounded in Knowledge say "We believe in it. It is all
from our Rabb (Lord).But none will take heed except those who have the
foundation of the Al-Quran"
Cheers
On May 9, 9:14 am, **Rowland Croucher**
<rccroucher@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> May 8, 2008
>
> Churchgoing on its knees as Christianity falls out of favour
>
> Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
>
> Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of
> regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a
> generation, research published today suggests.
>
> The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once
> a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other
> denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the
> collection plate to sup****t the Christian infrastructure, including
> church upkeep and ministers=92 pay and pensions, will force church
> closures as ageing congregations die.
>
> In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have
> increased from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.
>
> According to Religious Trends, a comprehensive statistical analysis of
> religious practice in Britain, published by Christian Research, even
> Hindus will come close to outnumbering churchgoers within a generation.
> The forecast to 2050 shows churchgoing in Britain declining to 899,000
> while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more
> than doubled to 855,000. By 2050 there will be 2,660,000 active Muslims
> in Britain - nearly three times the number of Sunday churchgoers.
>
> The research is based on analysis of member****p and attendance of all
> the religious bodies in Britain, including a church census in 2005.
>
> Coming just months after the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that the
> introduction of aspects of sharia into British law was unavoidable, the
> re****t is likely to fuel calls for the disestablishment of the Church of
> England.
>
> Martin Salter, the Labour MP for Reading West and a member of Reading
> inter-faith group, said: =93I think all faiths could be treated equally
> under our constitution. These figures demonstrate the absurdity of
> favouring one brand of Christianity over other parts of the Christian
> faith and the many other religions that grace our shores.=94
>
> Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary with responsibility for
> community cohesion, said: =93We will look at these findings very
closely.
> Britain is a secular democracy with a strong Christian tradition but
> many faiths have a home in Britain.=94
>
> The re****t makes it clear that Christianity is becoming a minority
> religion. It also reflects the changing nature of religious practice
> worldwide and will further aid the stated aim of the Prince of Wales
> who, on his Coronation, hopes to become Defender of Faith rather than
> Defender of the Faith.
>
> Only in the large, evangelical churches of the Baptist and independent
> denominations is there resistance to the trend, but many of these
> churches also show some decline. One small area of growth is in Northern
> Ireland, where the enthusiasm of Pentecostals and other independents has
> led to a slight increase in numbers of churches - a trend expected to
> continue to 2050. The three growing denominations are the Orthodox,
> Pentecostals and smaller denominations, all dependent to a degree on
> immigration.
>
> The crisis is particularly acute for Methodists and Presbyterians, as
> many wor****ppers are aged over 65. The re****t predicts that these
> churches might well have merged with others by 2030. =93The primary
cause
> of the decrease in attendance is that people are simply dying off,=94
the
> re****t says.
>
> By 2050 there will be just 3,600 churchgoing Methodists left in Britain,
> Christian Research predicts. Anglicans will be down to 87,800, Catholics
> to 101,700, Presbyterians to 4,400, Baptists to 123,000 and independents
> to 168,000.
>
> The national breakdown shows similar declines across England, Wales and
> Scotland. Churchgoing across all denominations in England will fall from
> about 3 million today to about 700,000 in 2050. In Wales it will tumble
> from 200,000 to 42,000 and in Scotland, from 550,000 to 140,000. The
> figures take into account the recent boost to Catholicism from the
> number of Polish immigrants to Britain, particularly in Scotland.
>
> The re****t predicts that by 2030, when Dr Rowan Williams=92s successor
as
> Archbishop of Cantebury will be approaching retirement, there could be
> just 350,000 people attending just 10,000 Anglican churches, with an
> average of 35 wor****ppers each. The next Archbishop after that could
> find his position =93totally nonviable=94, the re****t says, with just
> 180,000 wor****ppers in 6,000 churches by 2040.
>
> David Voas, a professor of population studies at the Institute for
> Social Change at the University of Manchester, said: =93The difficulty
is
> in retaining the children who have churchgoing parents. So long as
> churchgoing is something that gets you laughed at, so long as there is a
> social stigma attached to being a churchgoing young person, it will be
> difficult to reverse the trend.=94 He said that young Muslims operated
in
> a different environment. =93Being religious is a way that you show you
are=
> different, that you are proud of your heritage. One of the ways young
> Muslims assert their identity is by being more observant than their
> parents.=94
>
> The Church of England disputed the forecasts last night. Lynda Barley,
> its head of research, said: =93These statistics represent a partial
> picture of religious trends today. In recent years church life has
> significantly diversified so these traditional statistics are less and
> less meaningful in isolation.
>
> =93There are more than 1.7 million people wor****pping in a Church of
> England church or cathedral each month, a figure that is 30 per cent
> higher [than the Sunday attendance figure used by Christian Research]
> and has remained stable since 2000. We have no reason to believe that
> this will drop significantly.=94
>
> =97 Hundreds of churches are protesting at soaring water bills, with
some
> parishes facing increases of up to 1,300 per cent. Senior churchmen from
> the Church of England, Methodist and other churches are meeting
> officials from Ofwat, the industry regulator, to argue their case
> against the charges today.
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3890080.ece
> --
>
> Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
>
> http://jmm.aaa.net.au/
(20,000 articles 4000 humor)
>
> Blogs -http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/
>
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>
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